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Software or service?TõnuApr 18, 2011

Browsers have become so capable that we use web apps for tasks where only desktop programs ruled just recently. A whole army of startups has emerged offering a variety of those apps as online services — just sign up and you can move another piece of your workflow to the cloud. No need to program, configure or learn some special tech skill.

Edicy is a service from that movement. All the server and tech yada-yada is taken care of by us. All that users need is a super simple interface to deal with things that matter to them — content, design, analytics. Hundreds of thousands use the same engine, so that they instantly get all the improvements and fixes without any extra cost.

But many companies are still forced to use software

Software or service?

And then there's a way to do it yourself — install an app into your own server, tweak and manage it. Reboot it when it gets stuck. Install new versions and plugins. Program custom features. Who on earth would do it if you could just sign up to a service managed by specialists? Apparently — developers.

On one hand, developers like to be in control with every little detail with their own stuff. They say that if a particular
web app isn't open source software and isn't running in a server that
you own, you'll be in trouble. You'll be locked in and tricked into
giving your data into the hands of strangers. Service might be shut down
anytime, new prices might be set whenever they feel like it.

I've heard this argumentation often from web agency guys building their customer websites on Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla and launching them on custom servers.

We love
open source. Edicy is built on it. You can modify and reconfigure open source software. You can run it in your own servers, extend
it with plugins, switch servers, get help from a wide community.

But hey, this isn't about open source at all.

It's about software. Configuring, installing etc are developer values. Normal people live in another world. They want to use and create not manage and program. Even more, we
don't share the opinion that openness and high value for the
end-user could be applicable to server software at all. For real openness you need a service.

The downsides of software

Often
another upside of open source software is listed — that there are no
recurring costs other than hosting involved. This isn't entirely true
when we go out of the developer bubble. The benefits for developer
become liabilities and problems if projected to the
end-user.

You'll be on your own. You'll be responsible of the IT side — software and hosting.

First
downside comes in the form of time wasted or money spent. You need to
get an IT guy to install, update or extend the software, manage the
hosting. There is no customer support, you need to seek help on your
own. You forget that it's a cost you actually bear if you outsource this
work from some tech firm.

Secondly, open source software is
often created by developers without proper help from usability
specialists and designers. Therefore you'll probably need to invest more
into schooling your team. Tasks difficult to learn are continuously
outsourced from the tech firm.

Third layer of costs is a lot
harder to notice. Developers tend to keep things simple for themselves
and customize parts of the server side code of the software. This
becomes a recurring cost haunting you every time you need to update the
system and leave the customization to work.

A new road to openness

There's a way you can enjoy the benefits of the openness without the
whole responsibility for tech details though. End-users don't need
software. They need service. An open service. A cloud tool that combines software, hosting, updating, support together.

It
doesn't often matter if the underlying software in that service is open
or not. What matters is that the service is open for signing up, using,
customizing, connecting and — if necessary — leaving together with your
data.

Usually subscribing to an online service is a better
choice than managing an application on your own. A dedicated team takes
care and is responsible of the whole tech side. Strangely enough,
services built around
the most delicate data have grown much more popular than their
installable open
source counterparts — because of usability, reliability and security of
these services. Gmail, Dropbox and Google Analytics are most well-known
examples.

Similarly, we believe building websites on Edicy and
other online web editors is a wiser choice for the end-user. It comes
with a lower costs than on open source CMS-s.